[lbo-talk] Left/Venezuela

Shane Mage shmage at pipeline.com
Wed Aug 18 12:58:44 PDT 2004


Doug wrote:
>Shane Mage wrote:
>
>>"breaking with the Dems," for the revolutionary left, is neither
>>a long-term strategy nor even part of a long-term strategy. It
>>is the condition sine qua non for the possibility of a long-term
>>strategy.
>
>It's a reflex, not a strategy...

Neither--just the precondition for even thinking meaningfully abour "strategy."


>...Trots have been saying it for decades...

No, they've been saying it for generations, since even before the birth of Trotsky ("Trots" here = revolutionary marxists and "Dems" = capitalist-dominated parties)


>, as they splinter further into deeper irrelevance, and now the
>Greens have taken it up, as they too splinter further into deeper
>irrelevance. It's a fine impulse if there are steps 2, 3, 4... in
>mind, but it's looking more and more like no one's gotten beyond
>step 1 (unless you call splitting steps 2, 3, 4...)

Splitting is the inevitable consequence of the illusion that one can take "steps 2, 3, 4..." when step *one* remains untaken by the working classes and their totally inadequate leadership (including the whole range from ordinary bureaucrats to self-styled socialists).

Shane Mage

"Thunderbolt steers all things...It consents and does not consent to be called Zeus."

Herakleitos of Ephesos



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